The Online Shopping Thread

This is a discussion on The Online Shopping Thread within Gadgets, Computers & Software, part of the Shifting gears category; Ordered a powerbank from GearBest . Here is the flow (for reference):
08-Dec-15 : Placed order and paid via Paypal
...

(Tracking via http://directlinktrackedplus.com/)
10-Dec-15 : Item pre-advice received
11-Dec-15 : Item received for processing
15-Dec-15 : Order departed on flight from origin
21-Dec-15 : Order departed from sorting hub
28-Dec-15 : Order received into final destination country
28-Dec-15 : Order customs cleared and lodged with localdelivery agent

In November I tried cutting the cord - did not renew my Tata Sky subscription (switched to a combination of Hotstar and Play Movies and Youtube). Unfortunately for the first time in years I maxed out on my home internet data plan. :-(

I had ordered 2 products on 10th November, both under $10 valuation from different sellers. This is my first purchase from ali. Both of them were through sellers preferred mode of shipment.
Unfortunately, none of the tracking numbers worked from day 1. (17track.net & flytexpress)
I have dropped innumerable mails to the sellers asking for the exact location but they only ask me to wait further.
It has been over a month now and my buyer protection will end in another 7 days. Should I go for cancellation or really wait for a few more days.

I had ordered 2 products on 10th November, both under $10 valuation from different sellers. This is my first purchase from ali. Both of them were through sellers preferred mode of shipment.
Unfortunately, none of the tracking numbers worked from day 1. (17track.net & flytexpress)
I have dropped innumerable mails to the sellers asking for the exact location but they only ask me to wait further.
It has been over a month now and my buyer protection will end in another 7 days. Should I go for cancellation or really wait for a few more days.

Thanks
Adhiraj

Buyer protection on AliExpress is a joke.
It is in the hands of the seller and he can arbitrarily keep extending the buyer protection.
But to give some benefit to the seller, tell him that you want to cancel the order, and pronto he will track it for you and extend your buyer protection.
Since the item is of $10 value, it would have been shipped though China Post which can take upto 4 months !!
Nevertheless, incase your seller isn't extending the buyer protection, raise a dispute and claim refund.
Most probably it would be returned and you might receive the product too !

Buyer protection on AliExpress is a joke.
It is in the hands of the seller and he can arbitrarily keep extending the buyer protection.
But to give some benefit to the seller, tell him that you want to cancel the order, and pronto he will track it for you and extend your buyer protection.

Buyer protection on Aliexpress is not a joke. The seller can extend the buyer protection only once, by max one month. After that you will get your refund.

I ordered some tapes once, did not get it so after 2 months I raised a claim. Seller extended the timeline by a month and so after another month the tapes didn't show up. I raised another dispute and this time I got the refund. Two months later the tapes showed up, after a total of 5 months.

In another case, I raised a dispute and the seller promptly refunded me the money. He sent me a message saying that he has immediately refunded but please pay back when you get it. I got the stuff after two weeks, informed him and he gave me a PayPal link where I could pay back the original cost.

Buyer protection on Aliexpress is not a joke. The seller can extend the buyer protection only once, by max one month. After that you will get your refund.

I ordered some tapes once, did not get it so after 2 months I raised a claim. Seller extended the timeline by a month and so after another month the tapes didn't show up. I raised another dispute and this time I got the refund. Two months later the tapes showed up, after a total of 5 months.

In another case, I raised a dispute and the seller promptly refunded me the money. He sent me a message saying that he has immediately refunded but please pay back when you get it. I got the stuff after two weeks, informed him and he gave me a PayPal link where I could pay back the original cost.

I received Chrome tapes that I had ordered, after a total wait of 4 months and 3 times extension of buyer protection, by the seller himself. When asked for refund, he said that he can only return to PayPal account, which I didn't have. I asked him to return to the credit card through which i paid. But he stick to the PayPal refund process only. Now, i don't have a PayPal account, because I don't do so many transactions through PayPal. I believe a regular shopper won't have a PayPal account either. So, i waited and waited and waited !!
For me, in my personal opinion, it is a cumbersome process as compared to Amazon, Flipkart, Ebay.

Now, i don't have a PayPal account, because I don't do so many transactions through PayPal

You can raise a dispute and aliexpress will refund you the money back to your cc. Don't need to deal with the seller. Upload the screenshot of the offer to refund to PayPal by the seller as one of your proofs to aliexpress in the dispute.

is it difficult to create a Paypal account? I thought it's just like creating any other account, the only difference being - Paypal tagged to your credit card?

Not sure how difficult it is, haven't tried. Is it like an Online Wallet (aka Oxigen, Airtel Money) ?

If it stores my Credit Card details , I would never ever create a PayPal account !!

Quote:

Originally Posted by diyguy

You can raise a dispute and aliexpress will refund you the money back to your cc. Don't need to deal with the seller. Upload the screenshot of the offer to refund to PayPal by the seller as one of your proofs to aliexpress in the dispute.

Ah, didn't know that AliExpress comes to rescue incase the seller is acting smarty ! Good to know that AliExpress takes up the accountability of a CC Refund.

Not sure how difficult it is, haven't tried. Is it like an Online Wallet (aka Oxigen, Airtel Money) ?

If it stores my Credit Card details , I would never ever create a PayPal account !!

Actually I find PayPal to be very safe. I first registered on it to receive money from those online surveys but then, I have also bought from it.

PayPal will store your CC info if you provide it, but you don't have to. I have linked an Axis Bank account to it and all my transactions go through that. Just to be safe I never keep more than 1000 rs in that account. I can always deposit more when I need to buy something.

I had ordered 2 products on 10th November, both under $10 valuation from different sellers. This is my first purchase from ali. Both of them were through sellers preferred mode of shipment.
Unfortunately, none of the tracking numbers worked from day 1. (17track.net & flytexpress)
I have dropped innumerable mails to the sellers asking for the exact location but they only ask me to wait further.
It has been over a month now and my buyer protection will end in another 7 days. Should I go for cancellation or really wait for a few more days.

Thanks
Adhiraj

I had placed an order on Aliexpress to be shipped to my current location in Australia. The item was marked as shipped within about a week, and tracking number provided, which was useless. Read on some other sites that don't bother about the tracking number as this is usually inaccurate. Was patient for about 2 months, and as my buyer protection was about to end, i raised a dispute as i felt nothing was being done to ship the item. Refund was processed quickly, and my money was returned.

It appears the guys on Aliexpress accept orders they have no intention of fulfilling and then just squat on them.

It appears the guys on Aliexpress accept orders they have no intention of fulfilling and then just squat on them.

You probably already know this, but some things that may help in terms of peace of mind
1.) Always buy from a power seller, someone with 1000s of feedback and the higher the positive %, the better.
2.) It is better to pay the 1-2$ extra for China Registered Post shipping as that is indisputable and if there is no proof of delivery, you will definitely get your money back
3.) Depending on the postal backlog, sometimes items do take longer than usual to arrive and hence you can ask the seller to extend buyer protection, just to be fair to the seller as well.

You probably already know this, but some things that may help in terms of peace of mind
1.) Always buy from a power seller, someone with 1000s of feedback and the higher the positive %, the better.
2.) It is better to pay the 1-2$ extra for China Registered Post shipping as that is indisputable and if there is no proof of delivery, you will definitely get your money back
3.) Depending on the postal backlog, sometimes items do take longer than usual to arrive and hence you can ask the seller to extend buyer protection, just to be fair to the seller as well.

I usually do all that.
I was looking for a specific item which was available just with this seller. No chance of the above luxury in this case. Also item value was just abt $35 so decided to take my chance and depend on buyer protection.

I have been using PayPal for many years; more than ten at least, and I have never had any trouble.

You probably get PayPal phishing-scam mails even without a PayPal account (the scammers wouldn't know!) and this is the one thing to beware of. It is not PayPal's fault that criminals can reproduce their graphics and make a convincing design,

The biggest clue is that the scammers do not know your name, and PayPal does. As one of its anti-scam measures, on anything important about your account, PayPal always addresses you by name, and never as "Dear Customer," or anything like that.

Even when something from PayPal looks really really genuine, never click on links in an email. Sign in to your PayPal account directly.

Keep a good, secret password, that you do not use for anything else, or store in your browser, and there should be no problems with PayPal at all.

On the other hand, saving my card/bank details to the ever-growing number of local on-line retailers is something I will never do. Amazon have had card details of mine for some time, and I have had no problem. Even Flipkart do not, and will not. Even Airtel do not and will not. As for the hoards of others: big no-no.